Hmm... never thought I'd say this in this lifetime, but I might have to give up coffee.
So~ about a week ago I decided to go off coffee (Why? Guess I just wanted to prove to myself that I could, haha, I know... My name's Luwito and I'm obsessive-compulsive.) Well, well, who knew that it ended up being such a success that I actually didn't consume any caffeine in any form for a full week. The first day I had coffee, mind you it was only iced cofee with tons of half&half, it actually made me jittery. That was the strangest feeling ever. Not even when I was in grade school has coffee ever had such an effect on me. That was about 10 days ago and I've drank probably 4 or 5 cups of coffee since. So I'm drinking a black regular french roast that I got from au bon pain now, and it still has quite an effect on me. It definitely pumped up my adrenaline, made my heart pound and giving me some sort of anxiety. Hahaha not the Mariah Carey level though.... but just enough for me to pour out personal issues on this blog, LOL. Look at this 2 entries in an hour span?
T_T I can't believe this... I might have to pick up another vice then, hahaha... alcohol sounds good at the moment... relaxing... some red wine in the early fall chill... sounds like a plan for the weekend to me !

Hahaha... or not if they turn on their anonymous browsing feature on. But, since it's new, many people might not realize it yet, LOL, and you might see your secret admirer or arch-enemy. My friend from across the pond, Howke, just told me that friendster recently added a new feature. Now you can see the list of people who have seen your profile in the past period (I think they reset the counter every month). ^_^ Isn't it interesting to see strangers looking at your profile? Well, I know I'm talking about friendster here, so it's kinda duh! to say that considering it is a *quotation mark* social networking site. Hahaha, but still... it tickles the exhibitionistic side of me (yeah, by side I mean, just plain me). Oh wait, is it exhibitionism... or narcissism... or just plain egocentric? Hahaha.. oh well, just thought I'd share the joy, conceited thoughts, whatever...

Argh... I've been sick with this cold (or is it a flu?) for more than a week now. 'Think I've been through all the symptoms by now: Sore throat? It was over and it just came back, Runny nose? Over, Congestion? Done, Aches? Over thanks to caffeine, Dizzyness? Hmm.. what dizziness? Still on that caffeine high LOL. I think I should be in a textbook for having this weird allergy to the equinoxes. I seem to always go down with something when the season changes. Last Thursday was the Autumnal Equinox and sure enough I've been quite addicted to NyQuil and DayQuil. *LOL* Bless Vicks Corporation for coming up with a cold medicine with such potent relaxants! Oh and I'd really like to thank whoever discovered Pseudoephedrine, Anti-histamines, and Acetaminophen ^_^

I suppose it's kinda my fault as well that I can't seem to get better. Instead of spending most of my time in bed, eating high-protein food, and drinking gallons of water, I've been pretty much out and about til the wee hours.

Hahaha... the first day I got a sore throat, I went to my friend's wedding which probably had the best food & wine ensemble I've ever tasted. Sure enough I couldn't get enough of the latter part. Then came the weekdays where I ate out every night because I'm just too weak to cook (but apparently strong enough to chat with my friends over coffee and desserts, hahaha). As the weekend approached, I felt a bit better, so naturally we went out. And Sunday was Agnes' birthday, so we threw a cake party at the Cheesecake Factory in Rockville. Got home around one-ish. Then today is Henry's 25th birthday, so it was ice-cream cake time at Seven Springs at midnight last night ^_^. A bit woozy now... though I can't quite tell whether it's due to lack of sleep or caffeine.

Even better, I got a Coldplay concert that I can't wait for this Friday! Hahaha.. I hope Chris Martin won't get sore throat (again) after the show. Then my friend from Ohio just e-mailed me telling me that she's coming over this Saturday with her friends to attend Glow at fur. DJ Armin is perfoming. Clubbing! You bet I'm very much tempted to go with them! Better load up on antioxidants then... Broccolis, Oranges, Blueberrys...

Well, we'll see if I'll make it through this week and weekend alive or with bronchitis on Monday.

So we've all heard that the Indian film industry is the world's biggest, but I've always thought it was very "local". Just imagine, in India alone there's already more than 600 million people, so they got volume. I guess I've underestimated the Indian diaspora which has never been as affluent as the Chinese one, or so it seemed. But last night I went to see Salaam Namaste, the reigning champ at India's National Box Office. I think I saw that film not because it was a huge movie in India, but because it actually premiered around the world just like a Hollywood movie. I was amazed that here in the suburb city of Laurel, Maryland they actually play a Bollywood movie. And to my even bigger surprise, they're playing the movie in pretty much every major city in the US and the world, from New York to Sydney to Abu Dhabi.

I can't help comparing India with Hong Kong or South Korea, the up-and-coming player in the world film industry. Obviously there is a market for Korean or HK-made Chinese films in the US. If there's enough Indian emigrés to support showings of Indian films, I'm quite sure in cities like LA, DC, or NY there is just as many Chinese immigrants or descendants. Ditto with Koreans (North and South). But how come there's virtually no Korean or Chinese presence in US theaters? Yes, there are Wong Kar-Wai's films from time to time and South Korean art films. But where are the blockbusters?

This Asian population has really been neglected by the showbiz distributors in the US: music and movies. I know so many Asians (Central to East, South to North) that still follows their country's pop culture. These guys (and gals, of course) would definitely pay to see the latest Andy Lau film or buy the soundtrack to Shakrukh Khan's latest flick. But so far I don't think we have the option. Perhaps those of us who live in NY or LA, but still, we have to scour the Chinatowns instead of browsing in the air-conditioned aisles of Virgin Megastores.

But perhaps things are changing. MTV recently launched their Indian subchannel, MTV Desi. This, supposedly, will be followed by the Korean and Chinese counterparts, MTV K and MTV Chi. Let's hope the advertisers see the potential in this huge, untapped market. How big? In its first week, Salaam Namaste managed to drew $934,200 in the UK, $1.08 million in US & Canada, $241k in Australia and $350k in the UAE.

« Be careful of what you wish for » Hmm... I guess there is some truth in that saying after all. Just last weekend (Saturday) I was driving a lot. I went to Tarara Winery in Northern Virginia with Octa for her company picnic. Well, their wines were ok, the white was ok but their merlot was awful. Too acidic for my taste. And they have this dessert wine made from blueberry, which was ok for the first few sips but ended up tasting like fermented bluberry syrup.

Anyway, back to my main point. While I was driving, I was thinking about making another blog, one that's really about thoughts. Deep ones, hahaha, unlke this blog which mostly filled with showbiz reviews ^_^. And I'm going to call the blog "While driving ~" since I think I do a lot of thinking about life and stuff when I drive. You see, when you take the metro you get to read something which occupies your mind and when someone else is driving, you ended up having a conversation with the driver. When you are the one who's driving, with no one in tow, there must be something in that piece of asphalt that stimulates your brain to start pondering.

So we went back from the winery, on our way to DC for our tango class. Quite a long drive, an hour or so on the highway... While driving, I was thinking, "hmm... what should my first entry be in that new blog?" And just like that, I got the answer. Hahaha because I was (apparently) going 77mph as I pass this police car waiting at the road divider. Octa was semi-shouting, "Watch out, there's police." I'm never one to notice the police cars, I don't know why but I had never managed to look out for them. But wait, that police car stood still. So we thought we were fine until 5 seconds later we passed another one (I was already going under the speed limit at this time), which started to follow me and pulled me over.

Welcome to Virginia... where driving 20mph over the speed limit is considered reckless driving and is a class 1 misdemeanor act. Which means, if convicted, I would have done a crime. Definitely blog-quality material, don't you think? Well, after extensive researching on the net and filtering all the biased advices by the lawyers trying to get your money, I think I'm quite OK. I have yet to read anyone actually went to jail for going just a bit over 20mph from the speed limit, but hey... I was thinking, perhaps because they went to jail, they wouldn't be able to access the internet. Is there Wi-Fi in prison? Anybody knows?

Well.. wish me luck. Wait, not now... wish me luck on Nov. 9, my court date.

I think one of the jobs that I'd be happy to do for the rest of my life would be being a scout on the lookout for new music from around the world. There I was, at my first Beginner Tango lesson, and what really intrigued me was not the history of the dance or what other steps we'd be learning next week. Instead, it was this piece of music by Carlos Libedinsky from his 2003 album narcotango. The song is called vi luz y subí which roughly translates as i saw the light and i entered. It's like when you're in a house and you saw this light coming from a room and you decided to enter that room.

As always, that discovery of great new music always led me to a mad dash of DC's CD stores... and as always, none of the stores had the cd! What is wrong with these retails with supposedly extensive collections. Hmm... perhaps the question should be about me, "how come I always ended up liking these obscure, esoteric, artists?" But from what I've found out, this new movement in tango music is not exactly unheard-of.

According to Horacio Ferrer, a well-known tango historian, "Tango undergoes evolutionary cycles." Which is probably true, first was the arrival of big orchestral tango, followed by the introduction of lyrics to the music. Then come the nuevo tango with its jazz influence and it's only a matter of time indeed before another genre of music decided to have its take on the argentinean dance. As quoted from Pablo Farba, a well-noted festival producer, "in the new millennium, yet another revolution has taken place in Buenos Aires." Tango electronico is here. Perhaps the most significant acknowledgment of this movement would be when the DJs spinned their electronica-infused tango at the city government-sponsored 6th International Tango Festival of Buenos Aires in 2004.

Autumn will be here in less than a week, that could only mean one thing: "romantic comedy season playing in a theater near you." Well, if Mark Water's latest offering Just Like Heaven is any indication of the quality we should be expecting, then we're in for a honey sweet (not saccharine) autumn rom-coms this year. Water, fresh off the blockbuster pair Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, teamed up with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo in this girl-is-a-ghost-guy-is heartbroken-guy-and-girl-fall-in-love-against-all-odds-miracle-happens flick.

Hey, it might not be original (see Ghost, City of Angels), it might not be unpredictable (let's just say it involves destiny), nor might it be logically-sound (try to overlook this and you'll enjoy this confection more), but who cares as long as they did a great job in concocting a tried-and-true formula? Sometimes all you want is just a good juicy hamburger, not some kind of smörgåsbord with caspian roe and dom perignon.


Witherspoon & Ruffalo definitely got plenty of chemistry to make the story works, you'd be hard pressed not to root for them and wish that for once the stars will all align and the lovers can finally be together. The characters themselves are well-written, instead of giving us these unbelievably goodlooking singles who in a bizarre alternate reality can't seem to get a date, we got these two (still amazingly attractive) people who are alone because of actual, valid reasons (elizabeth's job & david's tragedy).

Logical issues aside (Elizabeth must be a millionaire to have that apartment), Just Like Heaven felt like fresh air. It's light, sweet, and, I have to mention this even though the oxygen analogy doesn't go this far, damn funny! It's one of those films that you'd go to because you just want to escape for 90 minutes and relax, instead of the movie you have to see because of this and that. Well, someone could hire an actual artist (from the current time period preferably, not the early 90's) to fix the poster, but on the other hand the vanilla poster might actually help the movie's understated image which wouldn't scare away people who are tired of the bombastically-promoted blockbusters.

An example of what could go right with a major label. « Plans, » the Atlantic debut (fifth with Barsuk) of the Bellingham, Washington-based quartet Death Cab for Cutie landed at number four on Billboard's Top 200 albums on its release week by shifting 90,000 copies. In comparison, their previous set, the critic-adored, fans-loved Transatlanticism sold 13,000 on its first week, hitting #97 on billboard before exiting the chart on the following week. While Atlantic flexed its marketing muscle (storefront promotions and high mtv rotation & appearances), DCFC did what they do best, make moody, hum-along-friendly music with impossibly romantic lyrics. Add to that: a popular lead single (the anthemic "Soul Meets Body"), countless favorable reviews by critics (from the New York Times to Rolling Stone) and legions of die-hard fans (which is considerably larger ever since their appearance on The OC), it actually would be quite difficult to mess this up.

When listening, most people would probably think about the summer's sleeper hit Such Great Heights by The Postal Service, a side project of Ben Gibbard with Jimmy Tamborello. Not so surprising because if DCFC is a cake then Gibbard (songwriter, vocals) mixes the dough while producer-cum-bandmate Chris Walla bakes it.

Plans starts off with the simmering, sampling rich Marching Bands of Manhattan, followed immediately by the anthemic, sing-along Soul Meets Body, then it mellows down to the lazy end-of-summer by-the-pool music Summer Skin and Different Names for the Same Thing. They went folk on I Will Follow You into the Dark, then the jamming sessions series Your Heart Is an Empty Room, Someday You Will Be Loved, and Crooked Teeth. Granted, the second half of the album isn't as captivating as the first one, but thankfully here comes the gem of the album, the piano-led What Sarah Said. Definitely the best song of the album, immensely lyrical, beautifully melancholic but in the same time touching in its simplicity. The LP ended with calming, slow-paced Brothers on a Hotel Bed and the so-so Stable Song.

To me, the whole album felt like Summer, you make plans, getting all excited about going here and there, then later on after you exhausted yourself all you want to do is just lounging around by the pool. By the end you're sad that it's over but satisfied in the same time cause Autumn is coming with some badly needed change from this hazy summer days.

One of the most anticipated magazine launches in recent history, Men's Vogue, the counterpart to the women's style bible, is finally available at newsstands across the country.

According to Condé Nast, the publisher, the magazine targeted mature men with income of 100k and above. "It is not an aspiring magazine, it's for those who have already achieved it," they said. Well, my take on this is that Condé Nast didn't want Men's Vogue to bite into GQ's market, Condé Nast's men's lifestyle magazine with heavy inclination towards fashion.

Well, after perusing the magazine cover to cover, I could only find two articles that are actually interesting: one about the Andaman Islands, and another about three models talking about what kind of clothing they like on a man. The rest can be best summed up by one word: old.

I suppose they tried to look mature, classic, and elegant but you can be classy without being conservative, elegant without being unoriginal. Try wallpaper* for inspiration. The articles were well-written and the subjects are somewhat interesting. This would be fine, had it not been a Vogue which was supposedly a style magazine. None of the style in the magazine couldn't be obtained from your local Lord & Taylor's, OK Neiman-Marcus to be honest. But where's the "style" style of the season's latest looks, or a runway report from the fashion weeks?

An utter dissapointment. They got 6 months before the next issue is out, I sure hope they realize that it was supposed to be style magazine not the lifestyle complement of Financial Times. And what kind of a magazine nowadays that doesn't have a website?

I am sooo in a ranting mode now. If only someone would just say something stupid so that I could snap on them, that would be very nice. ^_^ Nothing is more theurapeutic for bad mood than lashing at an innocent someone. LOL. Luckily, this country has a leader who listens to the people and serves them well !

I think there is a リング — like curse on Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events movie. Although, admittedly my series is not as bad as that of the Baudelaire Orphans, still... it's as if the cosmos is working against me.

So I saw the movie on Tuesday night. I liked it by the way, it really was a feast for the visual sensory. From the opening sequence animation to the gloomy-colorful quality of the photography to the magnificent elaborate sets, I just simply couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Granted, the script could use some tweaking in the excitement department, but it was still entertaining enough for me. And I definitely loved the ending, the surprisingly un-Hollywood ending I should say.

Unfortunate Event #1: the haircut. Well, supposedly there's this Indonesian hairdresser on 17th and R that's good. Hahaha, well, I suppose I got what I deserve for getting hair advice from a massage therapist. The salon was about 15-20-minute walk from the metro and although he was nice, his hairdressing skill was .... just ok. I think I'll stick to my guy in Wheaton who definitely has more ideas on what to do with a pair of shears.

Unfortunate Event #2: I walked back to the metro, passing this bus stop. As I passed it I heard some mumbling behind me... I ignored it at first, then it got closer... I looked to the right and this guy was apparently talking to me. I got no idea what he was talking about at first... then I kinda get that he was talking about a phone, so I said.. "sorry, got no phone with me," to which he replied with a string of words that was really unintelligible. So the conversation was basically: he mumbles, I said "huh?" When I finally managed to get him to put the question in English, he asked for money to make a call. Too bad for him, I don't carry change..
Reading the story, it might sound like I'm the one being unreasonable when asked for help, but this guy was not exactly asking, it was more like mugging. And if he really did need help, he could've asked the person sitting next to him at the bus stop instead of me who happen to pass behind him and who he happen to see. If you were there, it was obvious that he wasn't looking for help until he saw me and thought he could get some money. Hmphh! That was definitely the first time I actually felt unsafe in DC after all this time.

Unfortunate Event #3: I got home, the back parking lot was full so I drove around to park on the front driveway. That drive way could easily fit 2 cars, but the smart ass who drove a green Jetta parked his (or her) car right in the middle of it so my car won't fit on the driveway. So I parked on the grass to his right... this will lead to #5.

Unfortunate Event #4: I went to bed somewhat early, hoping to get up earlier the next morning. I've been sleeping late in the past few days so I thought I'd catch up a bit with my cell regeneration. True enough, I woke up completely refreshed. You know, the kind of waking up that doesn't include grogginess, the kind that's not induced by the blaring beep of the alarm clock.... Wait a minute! But I did set the alarm clock. Where is it? What time is it? The side table? Not there. The window sill? Not there either. Underneath the pillows? There it is... OK, let's see what time is it? It was a bit bright for 7 AM and the LED of my alarm clock displayed 08:06. Great!

Unfortunate Event #5: Finally finished getting ready. Ran downstairs to the back parking lot. Realized that I did not park there. Ran around the building to the front. Beeped the car locks. Threw my bag on the passenger seat. Hopped into the driver's seat. What's that under my wiper blade? Let me introduce you to the bizarre regulation that is the City Ordinance. Apparently it is illegal to park on the grass even if it is your own grass. And so I ended up being a contributor the coffers of the City of College Park. Damn it, that 35 bucks could've gone into getting the new Death Cab for Cutie CD! Plus the repackaged The Killers debut album which I meant to get today.

Comic Relief #1: Well I sure hope this won't be the last one today. On the train I was reading about New Orleans on Express with much contempt. How on earth did that happen with them knowing it was coming more than 24 hours in advance? Anyway.. that was not the comic relief I was talking about. On this little box there was a quote of what Bush said as he looked through the window of Air Force One, "It's devastating. It has got to be doubly devastating down there." Hmm... very articulate, isn't he? Well, at least the grammar was OK.

Well, I'm planning to go on a The O.C. Season 2 marathon tonight, that show has never failed to brighten me up.